Genuine Christianity

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We're all looking for a genuine faith in Christ. None of us want to be a fake or someone who is a Christian in name only. We want to really live for Christ and be worthy of being called a follower of Christ. But how can we know that our faith is real? There are some very important clues in 1st John. Let's look at three indicators of our overall spiritual health.

1) A personal relationship with Jesus Christ. 

"This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ." (1 John 1:2-3) 

The "life" John is referring to is Jesus Christ in the flesh. We need to remember that Jesus is so much more than a man who lived and died 2,000 years ago. Jesus is alive today and to rightly be called a follower of Christ, we need to know him. We need a relationship with Him and to do that, we need to spend time with Jesus in prayer. Open your heart to Him and really listen to what he wants to tell you. Study his words in the scripture and understand his teaching. To be a true follower of Jesus, you need to be able to declare, "I know the Lord personally, and He knows me."

Part of having a relationship with Jesus is not being ashamed of Him. Don't be afraid of letting people know where you stand! Don't hide your Bible under the night stand and don't be afraid to let people see you praying or worshiping. If you're ashamed of Jesus, then you can be certain your relationship is in trouble.

2) Despise Sin and Wickedness. 

"God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth." (1 John 1:5-6) 

We all make mistakes and sin. The mark of a true Christian is that when we sin, we seek forgiveness and then actively look for ways to make sure we do not commit that sin again. We hate that we have sinned, we despise our sinful nature and we want to do whatever we have to in order to prevent it from happening again. If you have ongoing sin in your life and do not look for ways to eliminate it, or worse, justify it and have no remorse, then you are not walking in the light.

It's so tempting to permit sin in our lives, especially when our friends and coworkers have such completely different standards. We are told that swearing, drunkenness, lying, cheating and sexual immortality are perfectly fine these days. They are not. If we truly want to be followers of Christ, we need to live up to a higher standard.

Here's a simple rule to help guide you - don't engage in any activity that you would not do if Jesus were standing right there beside you. (Next time you're at the video store, ask yourself if you would watch that movie if Jesus were coming over later to watch it with you. )

3) Look for ways to serve God. 

"And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did." (1 John 2:3-6) 

Obeying God is not just about avoiding the things he has commanded us not to do. We need to go further and actively do the things he has commanded us to do. God had commanded us to love, to forgive and to serve and we cannot be followers of Christ without obeying Him in these areas. We need to maintain healthy, loving relationships within our friends, family and community. We need to serve God actively through our generous gifts of time and money.

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